Can you believe it?! Today is officially the halfway point through 2024. Happy Canada Day too!
I’ve had an excellent 6-months of reading. I’ve read 35 books so far and I did post a round-up at the quarter mark about some of those read. While there were a tiny amount of books that ended up being just okay, or placed into the DNF pile, overall, I’ve had a stellar half-year of reading so far this year!
Where do I start? Right from where I left off at the quarter mark? Or I might list the best books I’ve read so far from January – July. Let’s just do that! I’m going to list the ones that were The Best and then I’ll follow up with the ones that were very, very good and were greatly enjoyed.
Best Books Read So Far
Anxious People by Fredrik Backman. You just know that Backman is going to appear on the list if I’ve read one of his books. I wrote about it here in this post, and I’ll just reiterate how much I loved it, and how Hoarder Elizabeth’s plan to turn me into a Backman convert is working well. Is he planning on publishing anything new soon?? Does anyone know?
Once again Christine Higdon has given us a fantastic set of characters to fall in love with. The story inside is as relevant today as it only continues as it did in its 1920s setting. The fight to love who you want to love and the ever exhausting fight for women to be respected and considered and to have safe access to abortion and healthcare all devoid of being treated as the lesser ones and criminals. I’m once again left wondering what I’m going to do without these sisters Higdon has created, much like how I felt after reading The Very Marrow of Our Bones.
Weyward by Emilia Hart ended up being an excellent book for me and a 5-star read. An excellent debut and the audiobook really made this one sing! It just continued the theme of some of my reading this year where men treat women horribly, but women always come ahead proving how much stronger and more resilient they are, and help each other and call upon each other to find their strength to move forward. Weyward exemplified this with it’s story reaching back centuries and into the present of three extraordinary women. The audiobook is an excellent way to experience this one.
Another one I’ve mentioned previously is Rabbit Foot Bill by Helen Humphreys. The explosive nature of this story really connects near the end of the book and becomes one where I could not stop reading and feeling a ton of feelings. Shocking and tender are excellent words to use to describe this tremendous tale based on true events.
James. Oh my word, James. Percival Everett was absolutely robbed of the Pulitzer Prize. What the heck happened there? When I finished I wrote that if you only read one book this year, please make it James. This life-altering story is best experienced in audio, as Dominic Hoffman’s narration will take you on a journey of feelings and emotions and is just an incredibly powerful way to experience this book. This is the first book I finished this year where I said I was left bereft to have finished it. I’ve since gone on to say this about other books I’ve read this year, but truly, James has left me changed and is one to go back and read again and again.
The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn. Another astonishing debut. I am so happy that I bought this book. Incredible writing, incredible use of metaphor, incredible and descriptive writing and characters that are just wonderful! A debut! Here is the second book where I said I was left bereft upon finishing it. A piece of me is missing now that I’m not with Christabel, Flossie and Digby any longer.
How do you read Lesley Crewe and not give her 5-stars every single time? Beholden is a book where there is a great deal of sadness in it, but it is also filled with an incredible amount of love and joy and characters that only Crewe can create. This is again one filled with a “nest of wonderful women” (words used by Bridie). I loved it and once again I’m left bereft at having to leave some incredible fictional people behind.
Amor Towles. My god what an incredible and extraordinary gift this man has. Remember here where I said I ran out and bought Table for Two? Well I read it too quickly! And I cried that I finished it and said that if I were to go back and read again for the very first time I would probably read it too quickly all over again. I devoured this one. Short stories that were long enough to just soak yourself in his beautiful gift and a novella that closes the book and expands the story of Eve, a character from Rules of Civility. Run. Run and get this one.
I’ve had The Lincoln Highway sitting on my shelf ever since it first came out. Some of the books I read in between Table for Two and The Whalebone Theatre just weren’t living up to anything great. There were a few DNFs, there were some that were fine, just okay. I started and stopped quite a few books in and around this time. So I was craving something that would leave me feeling bereft, I needed that feeling again. So I reached once more for Amor Towles. Oh. I’m still crying. I’m still mourning that I’m no longer with Emmett, Billy, Woolly and Duchess. This man. Again I need to repeat that this man has an extraordinary gift. I have one book left by Mr. Towles to read and that is A Gentleman in Moscow. Do I read it this year to make my experience complete? Or do I hang on to it so I can savour it when I’ve hit another slump knowing he can most definitely pull me from it.
I was craving a book like one that S.A. Cosby wrote in All the Sinners Bleed. I wanted something gritty. Something that would take hold of me and suck me in deep. I searched and searched and found nestled on my shelf Natchez Burning by Greg Iles. I thoroughly enjoyed Iles’ storytelling in Cemetery Road, so I thought he would maybe give me that reading experience? As I was reading up about these books in this Natchez Burning trilogy, it was said that the novella, The Death Factory would set everything up nicely before diving into the trilogy. And it certainly did! I absolutely think reading this novella before Natchez Burning helped ground and establish the story, the history and many of the characters.
So once I finished The Death Factory, I jumped right into Natchez Burning. This was the book I was looking to read. How was I to know that Greg Iles would deliver that and more? This has everything in it – everything like All the Sinners Bleed but perhaps without the level of gruesome detail Cosby goes into. However do not think there isn’t anything left out in Natchez Burning. I was left with a very heavy heart and soul. The inexplicable acts of hatred, torture and violence men can inflict on others is crushing to the soul. I couldn’t wait to dive into the next book, The Bone Tree.
And here is where I’ll go into the next section, the section where I list the books that were very, very good but weren’t ones that were the very best I’ve read. But just look at the number of books I’ve read that were some of the best I’ve ever read! What magnificent reading experiences I’ve had so far!
Very, very good books read so far
I just had to jump into The Bone Tree after finishing Natchez Burning! However, I felt this one went too far off its rails and pulled its focus away from the horrific events that take place at “the bone tree” that we learned of in NB, and focused far too much on this Kennedy assassination angle. This book is over 800 pages and in my opinion didn’t really need be. For the majority of it, this Kennedy stuff takes over too many of its pages and spins its wheels before finally getting to the crux of where we left off in Natchez Burning. When we do (finally) reach these parts of the book, it becomes the fast-paced and breathtaking read I experienced in its predecessor. Onwards and forwards to Mississippi Blood which is what I’m currently reading actually!
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller was one suggested by Hoarder Elizabeth as I found myself in another little slump. The ending of this book really sang for me and it was the ending that has me including this one on my list. I do want to read Circe by Miller too – that also sits on my shelf.
After reading Valerie Perrin’s Fresh Water for Flowers, I was eager to read Three. Her books are not that easy to find here, and I mourn the loss of Book Depository because I could always count on them when I needed books that seem to only be available in the UK. (Perrin has another one that has recently been translated but it’s very expensive and somewhat difficult to find here, Forgotten on Sunday.) Anyway, I consumed this story of three friends from the very first pages to the very end. It ends on a note of melancholy or wistfulness perhaps, and it is certainly an ending that left me thinking long about Etienne, Nina and Adrien. And Virginie.
I’ll finish with The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn. I did not enjoy at all Quinn’s novel, The Alice Network (it was a fat DNF for me), so I was a touch reluctant to pick up The Diamond Eye. However, I thoroughly enjoyed this one! 
I stayed up later than usual to close the cover on it. Its ending is quite pulse-pounding and action packed. This was a great story that brought to life this remarkable woman – a lethal sniper nicknamed Lady Death.
Not a bad reading year so far right?! I hope you’ve had many great reads so far as well. Once again, Happy Canada Day! And let’s hope the reading greatness continues for me!
